Esequiel “Paul” Garcia might be young – he turns 30 this month – but before his arrest last week in a slaying that shocked Los Gatos, he had cultivated the champagne tastes and business portfolio of a much older man.

Garcia, a mortgage broker and real estate agent from a prominent family, owns rental properties in San Jose and stakes in vacation homes on a Contra Costa County marina. A fan of nice clothes and nicer cars, he favored boating excursions on the Delta. He even made use of a pricey luxury suite at HP Pavilion.

And last year he became a big player in the nightclub and restaurant business, picking up the popular Mountain Charley’s and the 180 Restaurant & Lounge in Los Gatos from Mark Achilli, the man he’s now accused of having killed.

Tuesday, more details emerged about Garcia, who faces charges with three other men, including one of his bouncers, in Achilli’s March 14 execution. As friends talked about a man known for both for his congeniality and drive to succeed, public records revealed a burgeoning empire fueled by a series of loans totaling more than $2 million.

“He was always about money,” said Karyn Caradonna, who worked with Garcia for five years at Philips Semiconductors, until he left in 2005 to start his mortgage business. “He had that salesman thing – kind of cocky. But he was very friendly.”

Caradonna said Garcia was something of an rising star at Philips. He arrived there in 2000 after a stint at Hewlett-Packard and quickly moved up the ranks in the company’s human resources department. When he left, Garcia was working as the director of benefits, compensation and payroll, Caradonna said.

It’s hard “when you move up quickly,” she said. “But he gained people’s respect. He learned the ropes and proved himself.”

Garcia; Daniel Chaidez, 23, of San Jose, a bouncer at Mountain Charley’s; and Miguel Chaidez, 22, of Duarte; are scheduled to be arraigned today in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Lucio Estrada, 24, of Burbank is the alleged shooter. His arraignment hasn’t been scheduled. They have all been booked on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder – creating a potential death penalty case.

Garcia has no prior criminal record, and a check of civil records indicates he has not been been a party to a lawsuit in the county. The same is true for Daniel Chaidez.

Garcia, a 1996 Bellarmine graduate and a longtime coach of the school’s freshman football team, earned his bachelor’s in business administration from San Jose State University in 1999. While working, he went on to earn a master’s degree in human resources administration from the University of San Francisco in 2003.

Soon after, Garcia, embarked on his real estate venture and friends say he talked regularly about his success “flipping” houses – buying them, improving them and then selling them for profit.

It was about this time, public records show, that Garcia began taking out big-dollar real estate loans. In the year and a half before his transactions with Achilli, and as the subprime mortgage market began its meltdown, records show Garcia borrowed more than $2.5 million, either pulling out equity from homes he owned or borrowing against equity in property he was buying.

Several of the loans appeared to have adjustable rates, and one transaction, for a $1.45 million home in Discovery Bay, appeared to have been purchased with no cash down at all. It was not known where any of the loans stood Tuesday. Garcia’s attorney, Harry A. Robertson, did not return a call and a message seeking comment.

His father, Esequiel “Zeke” Garcia, hailed by supporters as a “trailblazer” in the Mexican-American higher education community, said in a newsletter last year that he planned to spend time in Discovery Bay after his retirement as San Jose City College’s Dean of Student Services after 31 years.

Neighbors of Garcia and his longtime girlfriend, Gina Ronzano, remembered the couple spent lavishly to improve their homeon Nightingale Drive in San Jose. Workers were always coming and going, remodeling the white ranch interior and exterior or just doing yard work. They also remembered the nice cars parked out in front, a white Yukon and then an Audi, and later a Hummer.

Garcia and Ronzano moved to the home in late 2004 and lived there together until Ronzano moved out last summer, neighbors said. Garcia then moved out a few months later and put the house up for rent. It was about this time that Garcia apparently started dating the same woman that Achilli, his former partner in business, had been dating.

Caradonna said Garcia’s friends and former colleagues just can’t believe he’d be involved in a murder plot.

“He wanted to have the money and be a success,” she said. “I don’t think that makes him a bad person.”

"There is a general recognition that we don't need these military-style weapons in New Zealand, so it's very easy to win cross-party support for this," said Mark Mitchell, who was defense minister in the previous, center-right government and who supports the ban initiated by the center-left-led Labour Party.